= A Serial Introduction Part 4 =Winners of ITU-AJ Encouragement Awards 2023
In May every year, The ITU Association of Japan (ITU-AJ) proudly presents ITU-AJ Encouragement Awards to people who have madeoutstanding contributions in the field of international standardization and have helped in the ongoing development of ICT.
These Awards are also an embodiment of our sincere desire to encourage further contributions from these individuals in the future.
If you happen to run into these winners at another meeting in the future, please say hello to them.
But first, as part of the introductory series of Award Winners, allow us to introduce some of those remarkable winners.

Toshikazu Yurugi

KDDI Foundation
https://www.kddi-foundation.or.jp/english/
Fields of activity: ICT Development in the Asia and Pacific Region

Overcoming Pandemic Challenges facing International Collaborative
Projects

Being deeply honored to receive the ITU-AJ Encouragement
Award, I sincerely thank the members of the ITU Associationof Japan and everyone who has collaborated with me on myendeavors. The international collaborative projects recognized bythis award were primarily part of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity(APT) initiative aimed at bridging the digital divide. Theseprojects, carried out in developing countries and rural areas,
started with establishing the physical layer, such as constructing
a robust terrestrial optical fiber network based on technology
developed by Japan. After that, the projects were extended beyond
the physical layer to deal with a wide range of social issues,
including healthcare, education, disaster management, andreducing disparities for the disabled, through deployment of theapplication layer. From identifying challenges to implementing
solutions during these projects, I found that active communication
with the partner country is critical.
T he COV I D-19-pa ndemic-induced d isr upt ion tointernational travel posed a significant challenge to the progress

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New Breeze Summer 2024of the projects. Communication was confined to online channels,
and we had to rely on remote coordination based on local
information and verbal instructions from remote locations.
Despite these hurdles, we made steady progress in areasthat could be advanced remotely, such as finalizing system
specif ications and remote procurement, with an online
communication tool that developed rapidly as a result of thepandemic. Thanks to those efforts, we could quickly resume
project activities once the pandemic subsided after mid-2022, andwe could achieve the expected results soon after the resumption.
This accomplishment is a typical example of overcoming thevarious obstacles we encountered through utilization of ICT.
Thus, thanks to the solid ICT infrastructure developed as a resultof the pandemic, the projects could rapidly introduce the benefitsof new ICT technologies to developing countries and rural areas
soon after the pandemic subsided. By utilizing the upward spiral ofICT, I intend to accelerate my international contributions.

Soichiro Wami

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation
https://www.ntt-east.co.jp/en/
Fields of activity: Promote ICT development in Vietnam and other Southeast

Asian countries

Utilizing ICT to Develop Local Communities in Southeast Asia
I am grateful to receive the Japan ITU-AJ Encouragement
Award, and I express my sincere gratitude to the ITU Associationof Japan and all those involved who provided guidance andcooperation on a daily basis.
From 2004 to 2008, under a Business Cooperation Contract
between the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group(VNPT) and NTT Vietnam (now NTT e-Asia), a groupcompany of NTT East, I worked with VNPT members on
the construction and operation of telecommunications facilities.
During that time, starting in 2006, I was involved in conducting
joint trial projects concerning the deployment of FTTH
in Vietnam, in which FTTH had not yet been introduced.
We dispatched experts from Japan to transfer know-how onequipment design, construction techniques, and maintenance
operations to local engineers. I believe that these projects
contributed to the development of FTTH services in Vietnam.

From 2019, in accordance with a Memorandum of Understandingof cooperation on promotion of smart cities signed by NTT Eastwith BECAMEX IDC in Binh Duong Province, Vietnam,
NTT East has been discussing and studying in conjunction with
its group telecommunications company VNTT and others on
solving social issues through ICT. We are currently expanding
our activities beyond Vietnam; namely, we are working to createbusinesses in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries thatsolve local community issues by combining NTT East’s assets
with those of our local partners.
Many companies in Southeast-Asian countries that possess
ICT technology superior to that of Japan have recently emerged,
and we are working to partner with such companies to solve
Japan’s problems. In conjunction with various partners, we intend
to create new businesses that contribute to the development ofSoutheast Asian countries by utilizing ICT.

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
NICT Space-Timehttps://www.nict.go.jp/en/sts/
Standards Laboratory
Fields of activity: C lock Synchronization
Standardization team

Steps toward Space-Time Synchronization
We are honored to receive this prestigious ITU-AJ
Encouragement Award. Since 2021, NICT Space-time Standards
Laboratory has been actively involved in ITU-R WP5D
standardization activities, such as introducing the concept of“space-time synchronization” as a novel trend in future technology.
Initially unfamiliar with these activities, we cautiously participatedin meetings while learning from colleagues in the standardization
division at NICT.
The importance of space-time synchronization in the contextof the emerging 5G era is becoming more pronounced as the needfor accurate and stable time increases and efficient coordination
between people, objects, and events becomes more crucial. We
propose combining ultra-compact atomic clocks, high-precision
wireless time synchronization, and large-scale network timing
to achieve ubiquitous high-precision time synchronization thatmakes it easier to measure device location.
Despite time synchronization of current mobile device being

accurate to milliseconds, implementing organic coordination
requires synchronization at the nanosecond level, which poses a
significant challenge. Although we acknowledge the difficultyof advancing technological development, market creation,
standardization, and international networking simultaneously,
we are determined to overcome these obstacles with the help ofexperts.
The acceptance of space-time synchronization as a“future technology trend” at the ITU-R WP5D meetingmarks a significant milestone that lays the groundwork for its
implementation. While we recognize we are just at the beginningof this journey, receiving the encouragement award serves as
motivation to persist firmly.
We pledge to continue striving towards promoting
the migration to space-time synchronization, including
standardization efforts, and we express deep gratitude to ourcolleagues at NICT for their indispensable support.

New Breeze Summer 202421